For the Love of Literature

 Picking up where “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” left off, this stunning sequel takes readers on a journey even more electrifying than its predecessor. The cast is varied and talented, including the pyrogenic Emma; robust Bronwyn; invisible and studious Millard; visionary Horace; cynical resurrectionist Enoch; light-as-air Olive; apiarist Hugh; little Claire; and horticulturalist Fiona. September 3, 1940 finds the peculiar children escaping from their former island sanctuary with their headmistress, Miss Peregrine, after their loop has been invaded. Led by their newest addition, Jacob Portman, they embark on a frightening and danger-fraught odyssey to war-torn London to restore Miss Peregrine to human form while avoiding capture by the wights and hollows trying to destroy them.

“Hollow City” is another epic tour-de-force by Ransom Riggs. As a first-person narrator and the most relatably normal of the characters, Jacob brings the story to life for readers and invokes sympathy for both the individual and collective fates of the other characters. Riggs presents an intricately complex and thrilling tale that is nevertheless easily read and understood. Mild profanity, slight adult references, and mature content indicate a young adult or adult target audience. The vintage, often bizarre black-and-white photographs interspersed throughout the novel coalesce seamlessly with the storyline and enhance the reading experience. In this second book of the “Peculiar Children” series, Riggs creates a unique adventure of both fantasy and horror set in the land of peculiardom, and the ending will leave readers craving more.